Love to experiment with things that have been forgotten over time...obscure inventions and such. Lot of amazing things that people think are new inventions are hundreds of years old.

I also fly a powered parachute, mess with old cars and trucks, grew up playing bluegrass with my dad, I TRY to play bagpipes, dulcimer, tin whistle, hurdy gurdy....I enjoy being outside, camping with our old Airstream, going to festivals.

When I'm not trying to think of things to build and clutter up our house even more, my day job is doing renderings and artwork for children's footwear.

For those of you that have not seen this yet, a short recap…A harpsichord type instrument that uses a rosined nylon belt driven by a foot treadle to bow the strings when a key is pushed. This is a little video I made while it was working hal...

I didn’t get completely done, but took it to the festival anyway. Friday night I had it working pretty good about midnight, but as I was getting ready to put it away for the night- I heard a popping noise every time the belt made a full circ...

In case anyone was following this project, I haven’t given up…I just had to get away from it for a while. I didn’t get in done in time for the festival in May, but I did take it to show what I had done. I had spent so much time ...

Been a while since I posted progress, but I have been busy. Both on this, and installing an alarm system so I hopefully can keep my tools till the project is done (long story)
An overview as to what this is: A harpsichord shaped instrument tha...

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind comments…you guys seem to have an awesome group here; I actually stumbled on it by accident while searching for ways to bend a hapsichord side. I saw Gary’s blog on the harpsichord he built, and yes, I would really like to talk to him- I’ll probably pester him so much he’ll wanna block me in a few weeks.

Dadoo…you asked about blueprints; this was sort of “made up as I went”. I did rough sketches and then just started building- from the wheel out. I actually used a tape measure very little. There were a lot of thin strips of wood with pencil marks on them when i was done though!

As for the electric motor, yes it would work, but I like to keep things “unplugged”. To me, interacting with the instrument is part of it’s charm. I also find the concept of treadles, flywheels, weights, pulleys and so on fun to make, and watch when they’re working.

I’ll try to post more info on how this thing works later. I had to jack up a sagging beam under the house tonight…not really fun woodworking, but it had to be done.

Once again, you guys have a great group. It’s such a relief to find an online forum without all the bickering.
I think I’ll learn a lot here and make some good friends!

We welcome you to the one and the only LumberJocks. We hope that you enjoy your stay/visit each and every time you show up on our door step. If you should need any woodworking question answered, don’t hesitate to ask. Somebody’s gonna have a good answer for you.

Wow, you’ve got some really nice projects on here. As for me, I work for Boll Weevil Eradication in Northeast Arkansas and up until the past year, it has been really demanding. It is starting to ease up now and decided to pick up the tools I have collected plus add some and get started again. As far as liking tables, I just saved a few to try and get an idea of one I want to build for my wife. My current project is a kitchen secretary (http://bootheelwoodworks.blogspot.com). My dad lives up at Millersville…if I remember right, that’s not too awful far from you. Anyway, good to talk to you…